Wscr No Longer Just Keeping Score

The dial says WSCR-AM 1160, but Terry Boers and Dan Bernstein are talking about anger in the workplace, not sports.

Punch the button another time and Mike North is taking his own sociological twist on the attack of two people by a man in Bridgeport.

At various points in recent days and weeks, the discussion has veered from picking your favorite scary movies to Jesus.

Increasingly, "the Score" has little mention of the scores. WSCR executives maintain nothing has changed, and that the format always has allowed the hosts to delve into non-sports issues.

"You won't see us becoming (general talk like) WLS," WSCR General Manager Harvey Wells said. "By the same token, we've always allowed our guys to branch off sports. But we always will come back to sports."

However, WSCR listeners have noticed the detours off sports have become longer and more frequent in recent weeks. For fans coming to the station for sports talk, it feels like going into a popular rib joint only to find fish on the menu.

The hosts, however, are taking the approach for two reasons: sanity and survival.

"There's no doubt that we dance with the teams in Chicago," said Wells.

With the teams all dancing with three left feet of late, WSCR has been floored in the ratings. The original sports-talk station in Chicago, which has been a beacon for men 25 to 54, posted its lowest rating ever with a 1.1 for the spring rating period, down 35 percent from a year ago.

Of course, Michael Jordan played basketball in 1998. The aftermath hasn't been kind, as it seems that fans not only have tuned out the sagging teams, they also have tuned out talk about the sagging teams.

The Bears' victory over Kansas City did revitalize WSCR this week, as excited callers jammed the lines to talk about the game. But given the recent trend with the Bears, even the most optimistic WSCR listeners know it could be a blip on an otherwise bleak horizon.

As North said, "With the way our teams are, I challenge anyone to talk about them 24 hours a day."

North isn't even going to try. He was part of a WSCR lineup shakeup that has him going solo at noon. North says his ratio of sports talk to non-sports is 70-30.

One of North's recent topics asked listeners, "Who would be a current real-life likeness of Jesus Christ?" That question had to be a first for a sports-talk station. Unsurprisingly, given the local worship for him, a number of callers nominated Mike Ditka.

Although he calls the ratings system "archaic," North also says he is taking steps to recruit the casual listener.

"Ratings are at an all-time low, and you're going to try to do the same thing? I don't think so," North said. "I want my show to be like going to a bar. Talk 20 minutes of sports. Then 10 minutes of politics. And then 10 minutes about movies. Stuff guys are interested in."

Boers and Bernstein are taking a similar approach with their new morning show at 8 a.m. Meanwhile, the afternoon pairing of Dan Jiggetts and Dan McNeil has been virtually all sports-oriented, in part because of a higher volume of guests.

"If you take 47 straight calls with people saying Jim Riggleman should be fired, you're going to lose listeners," Boers said. "It's difficult to hold an audience when there's so much apathy right now."

Boers and Bernstein are trying to combat apathy with segments such as "secondhand news," a look at offbeat stories that come across the wires. Last week, when the topic of anger in the workplace became compelling in their eyes, they rode with it for a good portion of the show.

The risk with such a choice is that they alienate listeners who come to WSCR to hear about sports, not social issues. The argument is that talk shows exist on WLS and WGN-AM 720 for those kinds of discussions.

"Sure, there's a risk in going that direction," Boers said. "But there's also a risk in not doing it. No matter what you do, you're always going to turn off listeners. We're trying to talk to men 25 to 54. We're trying to talk about what they're interested in."

The other sports talker in town, ESPN's WMVP-AM 1000, believes men still are interested in sports, win or lose. The station, which is almost a year old and more national in scope, barely has made a dent in the ratings, but it is optimistic with "SportsCenter" star Dan Patrick starting a regular show at noon.

"There's always enough sports to talk about," ESPN program manager Mitch Rosen said. "You don't have to be winning. (Chicago) is a sports town. People want to talk about sports."

Ron Gleason, WSCR's director of sports and programming, believes his station is reacting to the interest level of its listeners. He says WSCR is "topical" radio, whether it be sports or something else.

"We're looking to be entertaining, compelling and interesting to listen to," Gleason said. "For us the vehicle to do that is through sports. Whether the percentage of (non-sports talk) has gone up is a function of the interest level. If the Bears go 6-0, I guarantee you we will be non-stop sports."

Any wagers on the Bears going 6-0? Or the Bulls improving significantly?

This is a tough time to be talking sports in this market, and the teams don't figure to make it easier.

"You just can't talk continuous sports," North said. "You're going to the well, and there's no water in there. So you have to find another way."